Generally speaking, the optical disc drive can be divided into a half-height optical disc drive and a slim optical disc drive. Comparing with the half-height optical disc drive used in a desktop computer, the slim optical disc drive used in a laptop computer has less volume and lighter weight. With the technical progress, the height of the slim optical disc drive is reduced to 1.27 cm or so.
FIG. 1 shows a schematically diagram for a cross-section of a well-known slim optical disc drive 1 wherein a disc tray 13 is ejected from a case 10. The well-known slim optical disc drive 1 comprises a case 10, a disc tray 13, a first circuit board 14, a second circuit board 15, and a flexible flat cable (FFC) 16. The case 10 comprises an upper cover 11 and a lower cover 12. The first circuit board 14 is disposed on the lower cover 12 and the second circuit board 15 is disposed on the disc tray 13. The flexible flat cable 16 connects the first circuit board 14 and the second circuit board 15 for transmitting information signals. The disc tray 13 is movably disposed on the lower cover 12. A spindle motor 19 and an optical pickup head 18 for spinning and reading an optical disc 17 are disposed on the disc tray 13.
As shown in FIG. 1, the flexible flat cable 16 has a first electric connecter 163 for connecting to the first circuit board 14 and a second electric connecter 164 for connecting to the second circuit board 15. The flexible flat cable 16 further has a bending portion 161 between the first electric connecter 163 and second electric connecter 164. When the disc tray 13 moves into the case 10, the disc tray 13 leads the second electric connecter 164 together to move into the case 10, and, during the movement of the disc tray 13, the position of the bending portion 161 located on the flexible flat cable 16 is changed and moved closer to the second electric connecter 164. Furthermore, a pendent portion 162 of the flexible flat cable 16 is formed between the second electric connecter 164 and the bending portion 161 because of a frictional force resulted from the contact between the top of the bending portion 161 and the upper cover 11.
However, the inner space of the slim optical disc drive is limited, and the room for containing the flexible flat cable is also limited. Especially to an ultra-slim optical disc drive, the height of which is only 0.95 cm and the distance between the bottom of the disc tray and the lower cover is around 0.4 to 0.5 cm. Furthermore, as the slim optical disc drive is installed in the laptop computer, the inner temperature of the slim optical disc drive is increased with the operation of the laptop computer for a long time. The increased inner temperature of the slim optical disc drive results in the hardening of the flexible flat cable.
The limited space and the hardened effect mentioned above will increase the frictional force resulted from the contact between the top of the bending portion 161 and the upper cover 11 so that the pendent amount of the pendent portion 162 will be increased. In the case that the pendent amount of the pendent portion 162 is larger than the allowed space between the bottom of the disc tray 13 and the lower cover 12 as shown in FIG. 1, the pendent portion 162 will be gripped between the disc tray 13 and lower cover 12 when the disc tray 13 moves into the case 10.
Moreover, when the disc tray 13 moves into the case 10, the pendent amount of the pendent portion 162 is changed with the changed position of the bending portion 161 located on the flexible flat cable 16. After loading and unloading the disc tray 13 several times, the flexible flat cable 16 will be folded repeatedly and produce the stress concentrated effect, which may result in a broken circuit of the inner conductor of the flexible flat cable 16 and influence the normal function of the optical disc drive.
Accordingly, how to prevent the flexible flat cable being gripped and provide suitable supporting force on the flexible flat cable is a problem which needs to be solved.